Government Agencies - Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness - Assignment Example

? Government Agencies: Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness. Executive summary Government agencies deliver services to alarge mass of people. Various resources are utilized to deliver services to the people. The way resources are well utilized by the government can be revealed by analyzing the private sector which many people prefer their services. The private sector is seen to be efficient, economic, and effective. The public is happy to see that the private sector perform its activities in an organized manner than the government. People forget to look at the negative effects that the private sector has on the environment and social aspects. The public also fails to appreciate the government for its services and think that it should do more. However, the government performs its major role of providing an enabling environment where this private sector is able to do its activities. The problem is, therefore, the negative public perception towards the government not lack of efficiency, effectiveness or being economic. Introduction A government is a group of people who are chosen by citizens, of a particular, to run various activities on their behalf. The running of the country’s affairs by the people they have elected, requires various resources. The resources needed to run a government are financial resources, human resources, and natural resources. These resources especially the financial resources are not always in good supply. With the current state of uncertainty in resources available to a government, they have to make maximum use of any resource that they have at a certain time. Most governments finance their operations through collecting taxes and then using the money on the basis of how well the money can bring benefits to the people. To know how well the money from tax is utilized, the issue of comparing how well a government and private sector uses a certain amount of money, is the starting point. Discussion A government has its set goals to ensure that it utilizes its resources well. Efficiency is said to be achieved when a government uses a given amount of resources and gets as much benefits as possible from the use of that resource. Efficiency is measured by gauging how great the results or the outputs obtained exceeds cost consumed or resources utilized. Efficiency is a word used to mean how close or far a government or a private organization is, so that it can achieve what it had planned to get or how well they have solved a problem. The two words, efficiency and effectiveness, therefore, are different. Efficiency is measured without paying attention to cost. In efficiency the government tries as much as possible to do an activity well, but in effectiveness the government does the right activity for the citizens. Efficiency, most of the time is associated with the private sector. The private sector are organizations or private people who are investing their resources, with the hope of getting more than what they invested. In this sense, therefore, the private sector is said to be more efficient because they can show how well they have done their activities. For example, since the main focus of private sector is to make big profits, many private companies report to the public how much money they have earned as profit (Starks 22). When people realize that a certain company has made huge profits, they tend to criticize the government for lack of efficiency. The public feels that the government should be able to do many activities using the money it collect from them through taxation. The private sector at times also criticize the government for lack of efficiency. The public also blames the government and demands that it should embrace ways used by the private, but forgets two important issues. The first issue is that the private sector would wish to be given control over the areas that they complain the government is not efficient. (Granof 43). The private sector complains deliberately so that the public would supports them in forcing the government, to give those areas to the private sector. The private sector lies to the public that it will run such places with the same efficiency as they run their own affairs. The second issue is on the functions of the two, the government and that of the private sector. The private sector aim to earn profit, while the government seeks to get economic benefits, social benefits, and to ensure that public welfare is protected. The private sector activities seek to mainly obtain economic benefits while showing little respect to environmental and social issues. It is until recently that the private sector has begun to take into consideration the effects of their economic activities on the environment and social factors (Teresa et al 5) Understanding the roles of the government and the private sector, can demonstrate that the activities of the government and of the private sector are efficient and effective to the people whom they focus. With respect to the number of people, the government serves all the citizens of a country and it is the only organization that can do this role. The private sector main aim is to make profit and that is why they compete to maximize profit. Government organizations are run by policy makers, who make the best decision so that the citizens gain the maximum benefits from public resources. Private organizations are responsible to shareholders and, therefore, tries to please them by making a huge profit. Public organizations are complex to manage because of the large number of people it serves. Public decisions, takes time to be formed because the interests of a large number of people has to be considered. Private organizations are easy to learn because the decision making process lies in the hands of a few people. The fact that the decision centers on people who have a common interest of profit making, means that decisions take short time to be made (Starks 17). The key role of the government is to redistribute and regulate the use of resources. For example, through taxation and price control. Redistribution of resources by the government ensure that a country is developing uniformly. This is contrary to the role of private sectors that create and distribute resources because profits are only enjoyed by stakeholders. Both public and private organizations have to finance their daily activities. Public agencies and organization do not experience a constant supply of funds. At the beginning of government financial year, the agencies are well funded and, therefore, they are efficient (Maxfield and Montoya 21). Towards the end of financial year, agencies are less efficient because the government may have diverted fund to cater for emergencies. The private sector mainly relies on the returns from its investments to finance its activities. The private sector, therefore, can be said to suffer decreasing and increasing financing, just like the government because investment do not yield constant returns. As regards the relations between the private sector and government to the people, the citizens of most countries are poorly informed about the activities of the government. Public education to teach the citizens about the government is not well organized to reach everybody due to the large number of people. To the private companies, it is the role of management sector to educate the public on the activities and the products of the company (Granof 64). Public sector are many and give varied services to the citizens. The public sector system consist of those public entities that provide goods and services outside the forces of supply and demand. In this sector, therefore, with respect to being economic, it is how the government inputs of labor results into outputs of service (Williams and Emilio 73). Productivity is increased by increase in efficiency and use of modern technology. The concept of productivity is very crucial if government agencies have to lower the cost of their operations, increase efficiency, and avoid blame and competition from the private sector. Hospitals are among the many places that the government spends a lot of its revenue. The government employs doctors to treat patients and, therefore, the major expenditure is on labor which is measured in terms of labor- hours. If a hospital utilizes 500 hours of labor to treat 1000 patients, the productivity could be 2 treatments per each labor hour (Williams and Emilio 43). If there is a second hospital that produces 3 treatment per labor hour, the second hospital can be said to be more economic than the first hospital. A public utility, for example, a school costs the government a lot of money to construct and operate. The school has no direct economic benefits but has several social benefits such as increased literacy, ensuring better labor market, and higher living standards. If such utilities were in the hands of private sector, the productivity would be high but some aspect would not be effective. For example, the cost of the service would extremely high and the doctor will often be overworked. In this sense, the government is economical because it balances all the aspects in providing its services (Williams and Emilio 57). In conclusion, government agencies are effective, efficient, and economical in all their operations. It is clear that government efforts fail to be recognized by the people who receive its goods and services. For instance, the government may invest in schools in order to train people yet these people do not recognize this effort, when they get opportunities to work in both the public and private sector. Inefficiency and ineffectiveness are mainly caused by people who receive services. This is because the government cannot do everything for its citizens. The government performs its roles in order to provide an enabling environment, where the private and any other investments can achieve their maximum potential. It also invests in constructing roads and other infrastructures that require huge capital investment. The projects are conducted with high efficiency and effectiveness. However, economic aspects are observed when the government invites bidders and selects the bidder who has the cheapest price. The government is, therefore, efficient, economic, and effective. It is only that the public have negative attitude and perceptions about the government. Work Cited Granof, Michael H. Government and Not-for-Profit Accounting: Concepts and Practices. New York: J. Wiley, 1998. Print. Maxfield, Sylvia, and Montoya R. Anzaldu?a. Government and Private Sector in Contemporary Mexico. La Jolla, Calif: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1987. Print. Starks, Michael. Not for Profit, Not for Sale: The Challenge of Public Sector Management. Newbury: Policy Journals in association with CIMA, 1991. Print. Teresa Curristine, Zsuzsanna Lonti and Isabelle Joumard. “Improving Public Sector Efficiency: Challenges and Opportunities”. Volume 7. (2007):1-10.Print. Williams, Alan, and Emilio Giardina. Efficiency in the Public Sector: The Theory and Practice of Cost-Benefit Analysis. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1993. Print. Read More